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 When
the Pharisees continued to doubt the divinity of Christ despite
obvious proof, the man who had been blind said, "Why herein
is a marvelous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and
yet he hath opened mine eyes." (Jn. 9:30)
Somehow
these words came to mind recently when I was told that the
church, baptism, Lord's Supper, etc., were no longer
"relevant." And what is "relevant"?
"Just be a follower of Christ, worship and obey Him."
Why
herein is a marvelous thing!! The church one reads about in
the N. T. consists of those who follow the Lord. The
"called out" "set apart" people (1 Pet. 2:9)
who have been separated from the world by virtue of this very
distinction -- that they are followers of Christ. And how did
they become followers of Him? They obeyed the call of His
gospel. (2 Thes. 2:14, Acts 2:37-41) These are the children of
God by faith in Christ Jesus, "for as many of you as have
been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." (Gal.
3:26-27)
When
someone answers, "I mean, just practice the sermon on the
mount" I simply turn and read some of that sermon
(Matt. 5:6:7:) and find out immediately that the excuse maker
doesn't like that any better than he likes baptism, or other
things Christ asks His followers to practice.
"Worship
and obey Christ" are very empty words in the mouth of one
who really means, "worship your self, and obey your own
inclinations." How can one obey Christ without giving heed
to the things Christ commands? This means we have an
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external
authority -- something outside our own feelings on a given
subject. We must turn to the words of Christ, the revelation of
His will, and become subject thereto.
What
"worship" is this that consists of things that tickle
MY ears, and please MY feelings? The Lord says to partake of the
bread and fruit of the vine "in remembrance of me." (I
Cor. 11:23-f.) So -- we ignore the memorial He requested,
and set about establishing some sort of "Easter"
festival -- "because we love Him so much, and wish to
worship Him." To worship -- whom??
The
Pharisees could not see the truth because they did not
want to see anything contrary to their selfish hypocritical
ways. Following some pointed remarks by our Lord on this
subject, they asked, "Are we blind also?" (Jn.
9:40-41) And Jesus replied, "If ye were blind, ye should
have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin
remaineth."
It
is an ultra-conservative modernist (?) who makes "follow
Christ" relevant today, meaning only to reduce Christ's
teachings to what he thinks important. His more modern
brothers have long since dropped the idea of divine authority,
and proclaim "God is Dead!"
(Bro.
Keeble said, "That's strange; I was just talking to Him
this morning, and He wasn't even sick!")
Better
give attention to His word that will judge us. THAT'S RELEVANT!
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